Good To Know: Do We Just Accept Pollution?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There have been several man-made disasters in the news this year — the worst oil spill in U.S. history in the Gulf and, now, in Hungary a toxic industrial spill that has ruined cities and may ruin one of the world’s great rivers. Don Shelby says the world needs resources. But is pollution just part of the equation we must accept?

It is a toxic red sludge that broke through a holding dike and the prime minister has called it an unprecedented ecological disaster. The toxic red sludge is so harsh it burns human skin on contact. The sludge is 3 feet deep in some homes of some cities, and it is now in the tributaries and main channel of one of the world’s great rivers, the Danube.

When I was in Romania, after communism fell, sportsman’s groups began the hard work of bringing the once-great fishing in the Danube delta back to former greatness before it became a cesspool.

The toxic sludge has killed all living organisms in the part of the river it has reached. There are already three humans dead, swept away by the rushing sludge from the broken dam.

How many more disasters will take before we begin thinking business as usual is not all that good for us?